


Incendiary

by BeatrizCaelum



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 06:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15552009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeatrizCaelum/pseuds/BeatrizCaelum
Summary: In which Shiro is in pain, Keith is confused and the world burns when love is finally laid bare.“How many of me are there?”  Shiro asks, feebly.“Just you,” Keith answers, because it is true. “And you’re here with me.”





	Incendiary

 

He wishes to do it after everything is over.

When the Universe is peacefully expanding with no conquerors wishing to tame its worlds; when each dimension is following its own course of events, blissful and steady; when children ask their loved ones to tell them stories of Voltron at night; when Voltron and its Paladins are a legend and a legend only. When he is dismissed of his duties as a soldier. When he is no longer quivering fragments of a man that once lost his mind to war.

War has a name of its own, time and space whisper, but wants to use yours instead.

Shiro dreams and dreams of peace – he is so used to dreaming that it seems he has been doing it for a long, long time in his short existence; although he is a man of action. He dreams of stargazing. He dreams of weak muscles and unnerving pain. He dreams of a tiny house somewhere in Japan; he cannot remember. There is nothing truly precise about those images – except for one.

He dreams of a man.

Shiro wishes to do it after everything is over, but soon enough he comes to a realization. Their futures are not set on stone, but are stained with blood. They will always have to fight, even if the one he is fighting is himself. It will never be over as long as he occupies this body. A vessel made for something – someone else that is now Takashi Shirogane just as much as he is – was – will be.

Someone that is in love with Keith just as much as he is.

 

* * *

 

Shiro has one head. Two heads. One. Two. It fluctuates. They float and then fly away and then come back like a comet crashes into the earth. He as to pour the extra one whenever it appears into something. Pour it into anything.

He cannot. It is a part of him. It is him entirely. Two, one, one, two.

“Breathe with me, Shiro. You are okay. Breath, one, two, one, two.”

“How many of me are there?”  Shiro asks, feebly.

“Just you,” Keith answers, because it is true. “And you’re here with me.”

Shiro collapses.

 

* * *

 

 

There is a healing pod. He is inside it. They are inside it. He.

_You saved me._

_We saved each other._

 

* * *

 

 

He wishes to do it after everything is over, but Keith beats him to it.

_I love you._

 

* * *

 

“How do you love me?”

This is what he does not ask. He knows the answer. He thinks he knows, at least, but does not dare to say the word, not even in his head.

“You need to rest,” this is what he says.                           

Keith laughs softly, shaking his head in an almost imperceptible gesture. Once more, Shiro is smitten by the longer hair and stronger arms. Keith is piloting the Black Lion in a silent journey to a nearby, friendly planet. The others chat occasionally through the comm links. Shiro vaguely hears Lance telling a joke and Allura’s laugh echoing.

“I can’t believe you’re the one telling me to rest, Shiro.” He says, not unkindly. “I’m okay, I promise.”

“No one is really okay after what I’ve done.”

The thick black of space surrounds them and Shiro feels petite.

“I,” he starts, “I shouldn’t have said it like that.”

 “ _You_ didn’t do anything.”  Keith pauses. “And neither did  _him_.”

“Well, I feel like I’ve done something.”

“You have,” Keith smiles like that only to him and Shiro knows it, “you have done so much for me.”

“You deserved it.”  Shiro’s tone is firm. His hand finds its usual spot on Keith’s shoulder; now larger and stronger. He feels the warmth and something inside him softens. Shiro hopes his face is not reddening by the second. “You still deserve it, by the way.”

“Yeah, I was a real charmer when I stole your car.”

“I mean it.” It is the first time Shiro laughs, and Keith visibly beams. “You deserve….”

_Me. You deserve my love._

“…my friendship.” And Shiro goes for it, trembling. “My brotherhood.”

Keith does not correct him.

 

* * *

 

 

A thought occurs to Shiro, fast.

He is dizzy with the possibilities that are now overwhelming him, pushing him over to directions his heart is too afraid to go by its own.  It’s Lance over the comm links. He is narrating this dramatic story of how his siblings once did something to him and he planned to prank them back – Shiro is not really listening.

“Have you ever had step-brothers?” Shiro asks so suddenly it even startles himself. “I mean, in the homes you lived.”

Keith opens his mouth and closes it. 

“I’m sorry,” Shiro gasps, “I know it’s a sore subject. I… I don’t know why I even asked in the first place.”

"It's alright, you can ask if you want to," Keith says slowly, perhaps a bit unsure, but willing to step out of his comfort zone for Shiro. It would not be the first time. "Yeah... But I wasn't really close to them. I barely talked to them, to be fair."

"So you don't really... I mean, you - this sounds rude." 

Keith looks up curiously to him and encourages Shiro with a calm, centered gaze,  _go ahead._

"You don't know what having a brother feels like, do you?"

Shiro regrets the words as soon as they leave his lips. For a few seconds, he regrets them because he thinks Keith is angry with him. But then Keith does something worse. He shakes his head and looks directly into Shiro's eyes with an innocent smile.

"Of course I do." 

 

* * *

 

 

Shiro is losing his mind. Minds. Again.

Not even the Galra could have planned this torture. To be in love is something awful. He feels uncharacteristically cold. Not empty, no, he feels like his body is a theatre full of people talking at the same time and they are all saying Keith's name in different voices, tones, and languages, as if his love reverberates through the dimensions. And it is all in vain. They will get to Earth, someday. They will defeat whatever is waiting for them – or fail. Either way, he and Keith will drift apart.

Shiro will lose the love of his life. Keith will lose something entirely different.

He decides to take a chance.

“How important am I to you, Keith?”

He cringes when realizes the echo of Adam’s voice in a time long lost to all of them.

Keith looks at him as if his second mind has just physically manifested in his body.

“Shiro?” He asks, caution in his tone. “What is this about?”

“You’ll see.” He promises. “Please, just answer. No holding back.” Then, he adds, a soft shade of red on the tips of his ears, “And try not to use the word brother.”

And Keith answers. And Keith does not hold back.

“You’re my best friend. Someone that fights by my side. Someone that I would do anything for. Someone I’d die to protect. My guiding light. You’re everything to me.”

“You love me,” Shiro says before he loses the nerve.

“Yes,” Keith says in a small voice, “but you already knew that. I told you, uh, that one time. When we were fighting. Do you remember it? I told you that you’re like –”

Shiro cannot bear to hear it again. He won't hear it again.

He doesn't.

He hears the soft noise of lips pressed together and a surprised but delighted sound that escapes Keith's mouth. When Keith eagerly leans in his touch, Shiro presses harder, sliding his tongue in, steady but passionate. The kiss is both sweet and incendiary, the kiss is the all the galaxies they've been to, the kiss is Keith, the kiss is Shiro, the kiss blends everything they have the potential to be when together. The pounding noise of his heart beating is a red melody. He doesn't see stars, no, these are outside, waiting for both of them to open their eyes. They are in no rush. Shiro cups Keith's cheeks in his hand and traces the scar, slowly, pressing small kisses to the skin as Keith trembles warm and breathless. 

"You were saying," Shiro teases.

"I..." Keith tries. "What just happened?"

"Apparently," he takes Keith's hand and he grins, "you love me a bit differently thank you thought." 

 

* * *

 

 

He wishes to do it after everything is over.

But everything with Keith is a beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [screams] two fics in two days! I'm dead. I feel like this is not my best work, but that's what I have to offer. I hope you guys liked it!
> 
> Please be kind to any mistakes, English is not my native language. If I were writing in Portuguese, that fic would have over 5k words lmao 
> 
> But I did my best!! <3 COME SCREAM WITH ME ABOUT SHEITH ON TUMBLR! my users are palallura and holyhikari.


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